Hi to you all from Ireland,I'll start by saying that its a good job that STW are out there as i would have never had the time or equipment to build one from scatch.So many thanks to all at STW.Collected a full kit last year & been building on & off since then, Its now finished apart from a few bits to be done & have ran on air ok, This weekend will be the birth of another STW 4" Burrell AgI with the lighting of the fire.

Hi Bazzer, I sprayed the motion works with an industrial satin black 1K paint, which have used in past for the motor industries, i see that you started on an agri build looking very good so far, you have great fun building it, i did.

Hi MickMine last for the day when running but empty themselves in 2 days if left - except for the main crank bearing boxes which take a week.I found you can vary this by making the trimmings thicker so they are a tighter fit in the tube, this slows the oil consumption or make them thinner by twisting more which will allow more oil in. I used the kit from herritage steam supplies but the copper wire from 1.0mm CSA thin wall automotive cable - this combination has worked really well for me - I like to see oil on all journals.

Hi MickI tried a few different materials but found the thinner worsted wool Herritage steam supplied worked best for me along with a single strand of copper from the 1mm wire.Glad your first steaming went well - most of my leaks sorted themselves out on 2nd and 3rd steaming. I don't get a knock when I turn pump on just a slight noise from the actual pump but I did have to make a new jib key for big end along with some adjustment of the bearing to stop the knock when I first ran on air - jib key was too narrow on the taper and did nothing to tighten the bearing and the bearing itself was oval.

Hi Graham,I did notice when i was lapping the big end bearing in that it was a touch oval & it did take a time in removing with the time saver compound, when i ran on air i did not notice the knock, will check the jib key & see if it does lock up the bearing to the crank journal,I do get the click/clack noise from the ball bearings when pump is on & it does work feeding water to boiler as this was my first thing to check when i steamed it first, By the way Graham forgot to ask about oil consumption on the Cyl oil pump, it is pumping & i could increase it by drilling another hole in the arm if needed, it would be good to know what the average is i.e how long a full tank would last when running RegardsMick

Hi Mick,My big end bearing was out of round by 5 thou - I skimmed the two halfs of the bearing to get it round.Had similar issues with the main crank bearings and ended up scraping these to fit - had one of the adjusters come loose on the flywheel end main bearing and that caused a knock.My pump does make a distinct noise when not on bypass, like what you described.I scrapped the STW lubricator as it kept sticking and I don't like roller clutches in this size. It did work for a while if I left the fitting at the ram end half a turn loose but struggled when notched back so I swapped it for a Live Steam models ratchet lubricator. With the STW lubricator I was filling it every 3 hours when running on the road but the LSM lubricator uses twice as much even when notched back. I did drill an additional hole to increase the output to try to improve things. You can check to see if it is sticking by running the engine and looking into the lubricator at the ram - it should return fully to the cam driving it. Mine did at low RPM but didn't when the speed was increased until I loosened the fitting. I did fit stronger springs but don't fully trust the design - I do know people who still use the STW lubricator and have no issues but I prefer the ratchet type.

Mick1020 wrote:By the way Graham forgot to ask about oil consumption on the Cyl oil pump, it is pumping & i could increase it by drilling another hole in the arm if needed, it would be good to know what the average is i.e how long a full tank would last when running RegardsMick

If it helps my early MW Agri tends to use about a tank per couple of hours if ticking over but like Grahams one starts to get sketchy at above tick over and consumption drops as the roller clutch sticks, however after over 18mths the top of the chimney is always quite oily and not dry which is a reasonable sign of lube.Having said that I'm in the process of changing it as its pretty old now and the clutch bearings need more and more cleaning out with the regulation WD40 so I'm fitting a Foster one from RA Barker.

Hi GrahamHave checked big end & i can lock up bearing but did noticed that the Jib key was sticking as the load was introduce by the nut, rounded corners a touch & refit with some graphite grease, this sorted the adjustment out, I also checked the mains out & the flywheel end did need a small amount of adjustment.Then i built the lubricator i did notice that the ram was sticking so i remove a small about from the nipple which was clamping the o rings also polished the ram shaft, re-checked & no sticking even when turn as fast as i could turn by hand. I will keep a close eye on it, When I steam next will be for a longer time to get the pressure up to test the safety valve & the steam injector, I will have engine running for longer & will give me a good indication of oil consumption with the lubricator,Many thanks for the info Graham & Livesteam, most appreciated.Hoping for good weather for weekend for the second steaming, Still thinking of a name for her.

Hi all,Steam for the second time, raised pressure up to test steam injector & safety valves, the safety's went at 135psi & then cut off at 120 so need to adjust spring a bit, will wait till next time to take her for a spin, i am checking the engine out to make sure its all working as it should before driving her. It is priming as well with speed increase which is to be expected so blowing boiler down, I did flush boiler out during build so the priming will slow up soon.

Mick1020 wrote:Hi all,Steam for the second time, raised pressure up to test steam injector & safety valves, the safety's went at 135psi & then cut off at 120 so need to adjust spring a bit, will wait till next time to take her for a spin, i am checking the engine out to make sure its all working as it should before driving her. It is priming as well with speed increase which is to be expected so blowing boiler down, I did flush boiler out during build so the priming will slow up soon.

Lovely job, from what I've heard just tweak the safeties one flat at a time, another Mick on here had his similar and found one flat on the nut sorted it just fine. Yep plenty of blow downs and wash outs should slow the priming down, I think some have even just boiled the engine up with the safeties removed to aid the cleaning process.

Well my understanding of priming is the water foams up inside the boiler and then gets into the cylinder and then of course out of the chimney which then rains down on you at the very least, at the worst it can hydralic the cylinder and pop cylinder covers off

The water foams due to the impurities in it, like cutting oil and preservation oil on the metal , this can also happen if you put too much water treatment in to the boiler.

The more you use and wash the boiler out the less this occurs as the impurities get washed out, I've only suffered this a couple of time due to over exuberance addition of treatment, but generally once I've used about a tender full of water it dies back, but its a bit of a mare when its happening as everything gets soaked including the driver, its wise to run with the drain cock wide open if its happening.

Well my understanding of priming is the water foams up inside the boiler and then gets into the cylinder and then of course out of the chimney which then rains down on you at the very least, at the worst it can hydralic the cylinder and pop cylinder covers off

The water foams due to the impurities in it, like cutting oil and preservation oil on the metal , this can also happen if you put too much water treatment in to the boiler.

The more you use and wash the boiler out the less this occurs as the impurities get washed out, I've only suffered this a couple of time due to over exuberance addition of treatment, but generally once I've used about a tender full of water it dies back, but its a bit of a mare when its happening as everything gets soaked including the driver, its wise to run with the drain cock wide open if its happening.

Thats a great explanation LiveSteam of priming of steam boilers.

A simple example of this is the pressure cooker, when boiling water the boiling point is increased thus cooking food faster but then done as the food in water is an impurity you have to let pressure reduce slowly out i.e turn heat off & turn pressure valve down in segments to drop off pressure, if you let the pressure go at once then water & steam will spray all over your cooker, my wife has done this & blames the pressure cooker is faulty.

Hi all,On my first steaming there was a knocking sound, that sound was still there after checking big end & mains on the second steaming, i was sure it was the pump so close checking when running i saw the horn plate moving a touch, water pump ram was not bottoming out so pump was hydraulicing, check with Steve at STW & was sorted, he sent me over a new eccentric with a lower stroke, the one in the my kit was the old type which was not the updated one, I was so happy that there was a solution & i was not mad & hearing banging noise. Now fitted,roll on weekend for next steaming